Next Shares looking sharp ahead of Shoemaker Mile

ARCADIA, Calif. – Next Shares is winless in four starts since joining trainer Richard Baltas’s California stable last fall.

The losing streak has not diminished expectations that Next Shares can win an important stakes on turf, perhaps as quickly as Monday’s Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile at Santa Anita.

Next Shares was third by a half-length to Om in the Grade 3 Thunder Road Stakes on Feb. 10, and second by a half-length to Bowies Hero in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile here March 10 before finishing seventh behind Heart to Heart in the Grade 1 Maker’s 46 Mile on April 13 at Keeneland.

Baltas said he has been encouraged by what Next Shares has displayed in recent workouts since the Keeneland trip.

“I worked him a few times in company, and he’s been more into the work,” Baltas said. “That’s a good sign. The horse is training great. He seems really happy.”

Next Shares will face familiar rivals in the $400,000 Shoemaker Mile, which has a purse equal to the Kilroe and is the highest of the year for a grass race at Santa Anita.

Om, Bowies Hero, and Heart to Heart are projected runners along with Blackjackcat, who was third in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar last November; Hunt, who won the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap at Del Mar last November; and Colonist, who was second by a neck in the Grade 3 American Stakes at a mile on turf April 21.

The Shoemaker Mile is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth for the winner to the BC Mile on Nov. 3 at Churchill Downs.